The janissary

[gary]

Hi Roc,
Thanks for outlining the red stages. Yes, I think you did quite well in reproducing the madder red.

For want of any way better to describe it, it seems to me that madder reds are slightly warm and the kermes reds are slightly cool if that makes any sense. Obviously, this doesn't take into account the scarlets that a tin mordant can produce for either of them. BTW, did I send the two scans of the madder dyes... they would be the ones with hours and days on one side. At a rough guess, the color as depicted would've resulted from at least a 12 hour soak in the dye, and perhaps as long as 3 days.

Gary

 

[megroot]

Hello Roc,

I am on top off it, hanging on your lips about the history and painting. I've been very pleased that Guy took the advantage ( maybe it is not the good word). I am looking forward to see yours progress. So far i find it amazing the red color you have done.
BTW i always start with the face on a figure. Why dont you ?? just querious.

Now i am looking for Guys fig.

Keep going

Marc

 

[Roc]

Hey Gary, Your are always welcome my friend and thanks for the encouragement and your help, I very much appreciated it.
The madder reds are definitely on the warm side and that is exactly what I was looking for.


Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Roc.

 

[Roc]

Hello Marc,thank you and I'm happy to hear you are enjoying the step by step.

I think Guy has begun work on his Janissary,but is waiting for his wife to return from Budapest with his digital camera.

As far as the face, I really have no good reason why I paint the face last,
I've been doing it this way since I started painting figures.


Keep up the good work.

Cheers

Roc

 

[Anders Heintz]

Great reds Roc!! Looks sharp man!

 

[Roc]

Anders,thanks man,your comments are always welcome.


Keep up the great sculpting.

Cheers

Roc.

 

[Guy]

Your Janissary is coming along great Roc......well done with the reds.

Unfortunetly my Janissary is still in the prep-tray and I hope to drill nad peg him onto work bases when my back gets so I can sit longer than 5 minutes at a time.

 

[Roc]

RISE AND FALL OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

While it is difficult to find exact reasons for the rise of the Ottoman empire, except that there must have been skilled leaders, sufficient economical backing and probably weaknesses among the enemies; it is much easier to point at when the fall of the empire commenced, and its causes.
But let's start with the rise: There are 2 main explanation theories. The first is that the community of the Turko-Mongol warriors had grown strong enough to exercise its force. The good organization lead to a number of victories that could be further exploited to even more victories, and gain of land. The actual rise of the empire was gradual, and for half a century their own forces were enough to gain more land and then keep it. And as the indigenous forces proved to small, a system of forced conscription stated, but with effective recompense for the involved.
The second theory states that religious zeal made the Muslim warriors wage a jihad, holy war, against the Christian Byzantine empire in the west. While this theory has a lot of value for explaining the start of the empire, it cannot explain how the empire continued to grow over the next 4 centuries.
There are numerous reasons for the decline of the Ottoman Empire. The dominating reason, is that neighbour powers had grown stronger over the centuries. They had built stronger institutions, introduced modern arms, infrastructure and administration.
On the Ottoman side, however, many things had frozen in old structures, development on Ottoman territories was limited.
More than that, Ottoman institutions were often not working as smoothly as they used to.
But there were more things not working as they should have: The sultans since Süleyman had often been less apt to their role; more and more power had moved into the hands of the kapikulli class; the trade routes running through the empire was no longer as important for Europe, and hence yielded less income; the population had grown big and had become less controllable; cities had become weaker. By the time of the 19th century, the European mock name of the empire was correct: The sick man of Europe.
The Ottoman Empire tried to correct all the weaknesses, but it proved to be too late. It was during the times of the reform process, Tanzimat, that the empire lost the most of its territory.

 

[Roc]

Jihad

Arabic: jihâd

Islamic term, Arabic for 'battle; struggle; holy war for the religion'.
Jihad has two possible definitions: the greater, which is the spiritual struggle of each man, against vice, passion and ignorance. This understanding of jihad has been presented by apologetics of modern times, but is an understanding of the term rarely used by Muslims themselves.
The lesser jihad is simplified to cover holy war against infidels and infidel countries, aiming at spreading Islam. This kind of jihad is described in both the Holy Koran and in the hadiths. Muslim law has divided the world into two entities, dâru l-'islâm, the abode of Islam, and dâru l-harb, the abode of war. Battling against the Abode of war was a duty for a Muslim, as this is the only way for the peace of Islam to take the place of the warlike conditions of the infidels' society. Jihad can be both defence, as well as attacking an enemy.
The enemies of Islam are divided into two groups, the Peoples of the book, âhlu l-kitâb and the pagans, the kâfirûn. The first group, defined as Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Mandeans need only to submit to an Islamic ruler, and live in peace with other Muslims to end the situation where jihad is imperative.
For the pagans there is a principle fairly similar, but they get less rights under the Muslim ruler than the Peoples of the book. While this group generally can live safely inside a Muslim society, some Muslims have propagated that these should either convert to Islam or face death penalty. In situations where the Muslim rulers mean that war has to be waged against the infidels, they should be allowed sufficient of time to convert before the Muslim army attacks.
Jihad is a duty for every Muslim community, but not necessarily for every individual: it's sufficient that a certain number of the the able men perform jihad. The one who dies in the battle against the infidels, becomes a martyr, a shahid, and is guaranteed a place in Paradise as well as certain privileges there.
While offensive jihad, i.e. attacking, is fully permissible in Sunni Islam, it is prohibited for some of the larger groups of Shi'i Islam, which consider only the Imam, now in occultation, as carrying the right to decide to go to war or not.
The Kharijis regard jihad as the sixth pillar of Islam, a position that other groups of Islam have adhered to earlier.

 

[Anders Heintz]

Interesting stuff Roc, them Islamic people sure are a different breed.

 

[gary]

Hey Roc,
I'll include this as a side note on the oddness of language and belief systems. I picked up the Athens Miniatures figure of Constantine and while doing initial research read an interesting bit. It seems that Constantine is considered a martyr since he died "fighting the 'infidel." In this case, infidel refers to the Muslims and not the other way around. It would be interesting to find out which language infidel came from, and what the original meaning was.

Gary

 

[Roc]

Hey Anders, you are so right, they are very different from us, but we must agree that they were a great civilization and contributed many things, one them is our number system.

Cheers,

Roc

 

[Roc]

Hello Gary, I believe the word infidel derives from latin,meaning disloyal.
I speculate the Romans might have used it to describe anybody disloyal to the Empire or their Gods.


Cheers

Roc.

 

[gary]

Hi Roc,
It might be latin. I'll have to check it with our resident Roman expert over on Medrom.

Gary

 

[Roc]

Gary, thanks, I'm looking forward to it.


Cheers

Roc.

 

[Roc]

Hey Guy,I'm sorry to hear about your back,hope you get better real soon.


Cheers

Roc.

 

[Roc]

I finished the Janissary's jacket, it's been drying over night, thaught I'd post some picture.

comments are always welcome.

 

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Roc!

Looking good! Are you painting any pattern on him, if so what?

 

[Roc]

Hey anders,thanks man.

I'm not sure about the patterns,I have to do some more research before I decide.

Cheers

Roc.

 

[megroot]

He Roc,

It is gonna be a beauty. I am agree with Anders. A gold pattern all over the jacket would be a nice touch . Yes, you can do that.
He is gonna be good.

Looking forward

Marc